Friday, June 15, 2012

Corrupt Bastard Don Young

[This is the October 16, 2006 article I wrote for progressive activist Howie Klein, and his blog, Down With Tyranny. I'm reprinting it now, to help people remember just how sleazy some of Don's actions have been over the years]

Don Young and Jack Abramoff first crossed paths in 1997. Young had
"sponsored a bill to hold a vote in Puerto Rico on statehood for the
U.S. territory. Abramoff was a lobbyist for a group called Future of
Puerto Rico that wanted the same thing." The bill passed the House but
died in the Senate.

Beginning in 1999, Young became involved with
Abramoff in scams designed to bamboozle Americans into believing that
products produced under slave labor-like conditions in the Mariana
Islands were "Made in the USA." Young, as chairman of the House
Resources Committee, had oversight responsibilities over working
conditions in the Marianas and the Marshall Islands. In spite of this
responsibility, Young neglected to raise questions regarding working
conditions in either Island group while touring the Pacific Ocean
territories on trips subsidized or arranged by Abramoff.

Young
has never been confronted on his failure to take action on labor abuses
in the Marianas at that time which included forced prostitution and
abortion, harsh working conditions, a rapidly growing narcotics trade
and illegal garnishment of employee wages. Throughout the period of
Young's stewardship over the islands, working conditions worsened as
sweatshops erected there replaced the American textile and clothing
industry one shop at a time.

Chinese crime boss and sweatshop
owner Tan Siu Lin was able to launder money through Abramoff to a number
of GOP legislators and committees at the same time the US Interior
Department was issuing reports to Young about horrendous working
conditions and the growth of organized crime at Tan family-owned
businesses in the Marianas.

On January 4, 1999, Abramoff was
hired to represent the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Abramoff’s
main mission was to stop legislation pending in Congress, which would
have raised costs of clothing manufactured by the Tan family and other
clothing manufacturing interests there.

On February 21, 1999,
Young visited the Marshall Islands. As soon as he returned to
Washington, DC, Young killed House Resolution 730, which called for the
implementation of US labor laws in the Marshalls.

On February 2,
2000, Young called Abramoff’s assistant Jennifer Calvert to ask for use
of Abramoff’s MCI skybox for two upcoming fundraisers. The request was
granted. The fundraisers were held March 30 and July 24. Young failed to
report use of the skyboxes, as required by Federal law, until early
2006-- after the Abramoff scandal broke and was splashed all over the
national media.

Later in the summer of 2000, Abramoff’s lobbying
firm, Preston, Gates and Ellis, held a pricey tribute for Don Young at
the Republican National Convention.

In 2001, Abramoff moved to
the firm of Greenburg Traurig. In a January 4, 2001 proposal to
represent the government of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana
Islands, Abramoff wrote about his confidence in Don Young’s ability to
quash legislation prejudicial to the Tan family business interests. But
Abramoff also complained about Young's removal from the Chair of the
House Resources Committee, saying, "The loss of Chairman Young’s
authority cannot easily be measured or replaced." [He was replaced by
someone equally corrupt and someone who was quick to pick up where Young
left off: Dirty Dick Pombo.]

But Abramoff wasn't yet done with
Young. We know of at least two more scams. On March 21, 2001, Abramoff
staffer Tony Rudy met with Young's staff to "start gathering signatures
on letter to chairman," an unclear reference to a Marianas official.

During
the remainder of 2001, Young or his staff met or had discussions with
Abramoff agents at least eleven times, May 25, 29 and 31; June 5, 8, 13
and 25 (twice); August 22; and December 13 and 21.

In the summer
of 2002, Young's senior counsel, Duane Gibson, went to work for
Abramoff. This is in itself highly interesting given the almost daily
parade of GOP staffers and ex-staffers under fire, indictment or both.

In
September 2002, Young sought to intervene with the General Services
Administration on behalf of Abramoff, who at that time was seeking
preferential treatment for a group of his Tribal clients who were
bidding on a proposal to develop the Old Post Office Complex site in
Washington, DC. Although Young merely wrote two letters to the GSA
recommending the tribe's business consortium, he received a $7,000
contribution from two of the partners in the deal. Irregularities in
this business deal have led to the indictments and convictions of David
Savafian, GSA chief of Staff, Congressman Bob Ney of Ohio, and, of
course, Ambramoff. [Just today the Sacramento Bee confirmed that Young
House crony John Doolittle is also being investigated for the FBI for
his role in the Abramoff corruption scandals. It is widely believed that
after Doolittle has been indicted Young and Montana Senator Conrad
Burns will be the next up for thorough investigations by the Feds.]

On November 21, 2005 Abramoff’s partner Michael Scanlon pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe a member of Congress and other public officials. January 3, 2006 Abramoff pled guilty
to three felony counts, conspiracy, fraud, and tax evasion, involving
charges stemming principally from his lobbying activities in Washington.
He is purportedly continuing to cooperate with Federal investigators
but in the world of Gonzales/Bush "Justice," Alice Fisher has led the
investigative team. Fisher has been tied to fundraising for GOP crime
boss Tom DeLay’s legal defense team.

In February 2006, the Anchorage Daily News
published an editorial and a story that covered some of the
Young-Abramoff links detailed above. Young responded on February 7,
2006 with a long letter to the editor of the News. Young claimed,
quite falsely, "I have never had any personal or professional
relationship with Abramoff." Young concluded, "I find the Daily News'
editorial suggesting an unethical link between myself and Abramoff to
be reprehensible. You need to get your opinions [sic] straight and quit
attacking my integrity." The Anchorage Daily News followed up on February 19, 2006, with an article detailing some of the Young-Abramoff links.

And
Abramoff-Young links keep popping up. Former Abramoff colleague, David
Safavian, was convicted on June 20, 2006 of false statements and
obstruction of justice involving his collusion with Abramoff while
Safavian served as Chief of Staff of the Federal General Services
Administration. Although Safavian has been pinned mostly for the
well-known golf junket to Scotland, which has also brought down
Congressman Bob Ney of Ohio, Don Young's name came up in another aspect
of Safavian's trial, the aforementioned Old Post Office Complex area
development scam. There is a possibility that more information about
Young's involvement in this crooked deal will come out in Safavian's
pre-sentence investigation report, which is due for completion soon.

Along
with Safavian, Federal prosecutors have convicted former Chief of Staff
to Rep. Bob Ney, Neil Volz, for his role in deals which cut quite close
to Young's involvement in the Old Post Office Complex scam and his
subsequent contributions from Abramoff's clients. The May 25, 2006 Cleveland Plain Dealer
article on Safavian has Volz testifying regarding Young. "In his
testimony, Volz, who worked with Abramoff (as did Young’s chief counsel,
Duane Gibson) after leaving Congress, detailed how the lobbying team
received assistance from several Republican lawmakers, including Reps.
Ney, Shelley Moore Capitol (W.Va.), Don Young (Alaska) and Steven
LaTourette (Ohio)."

Liz Ruskin, the reporter who wrote the Anchorage Daily News stories critical of Young, left the paper in mid-2006. As of October 9, 2006, the Daily News
has found no replacement for Ruskin, who reported on Alaska's
Congressional delegation. According to their publisher, Patrick
Dougherty, they have nobody assigned to cover Young during one of the
most important national elections since World War II.

More articles are coming out every week as more information on Abramoff's criminal network come to light. Today's Los Angeles Times carries a long feature by Peter Wallsten, titled "Displease a Lobbyist-- Get Fired."
In the article Wallsten chronicles Abramoff's long reach by having
Allan Stayman fired in 2001, with Ken Mehlman's help. Stayman was the
chief State Department negotiator for agreements on working conditions
in the CNMI while Young also had direct responsibility for those
conditions.

Alaskans should hold our sole Representative in what
will be a Democratically-controlled Congress far more accountable about
his dealings with Abramoff through the years, and his failure to look
after the welfare of the citizens and residents of the Commonwealth of
the Northern Mariana Islands when he was statutorily responsible for the
welfare of those people.